Concord Community Schools celebrates 175 years as a school district

Concord Community Schools is not only proud to have survived its first 175 years, the people in it are excited to be part of one of the county’s oldest districts.

Capped off with a grandiose display of fireworks Friday night, the 175th anniversary celebration at the high school and middle school included local artists, musicians, business, classic cars, games and a barbecue dinner.

Cheryl Price, the district’s curriculum coordinator and the head of the Concord Marketing Committee, said the event was the final leg of a yearlong celebration that included a parade and tailgate party during the fall and a free Christmas concert and “dessert spectacular” in December.

“We’re lunatics basically,” she said with grin. “We actually think big and we are extremely excited about Concord and we want to market Concord, so we decided to market Concord to us and get us re-ignited in our excitement for what we do out here and the kind of people we have.”

Details on the location of Concord's first one-room schoolhouse are sketchy. According to "Reflections In the Pond," a 1976 book published by the Concord Heritage Association, the school was in a "lean-to" that was built onto a log cabin that was either on N. Albion Road just outside the village or between S. Main and Union streets at Monroe Street.

The current school facility on Main Street was completed in 1953, according to Citizen Patriot archives, a decade after the old Maple Street school building was destroyed by fire.

When Carol and Linda Franssen moved from Nebraska to Concord in 1977, the schools were the primary factor.

“There was no graffiti on the walls, no wild, crazy dressing and there didn’t seem to be any other clandestine activities going on…a good place to raise kids,” he said.

Five of Franssen’s children graduated from Concord High School and he said, “they speak for the community more than we do.”

His children include two dentists, a dental hygienist, a high school teacher and a Marine who works at the Pentagon.

“They didn’t get that way by just stumbling around,” he said. “It comes back to their grass roots and their education and we feel very confident that because of the athletic program and scholastic program we have very well adjusted kids who speak well for the community.”
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As published in the Jackson Citizen Patriot on June 11, 2011